Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum drew in a deep, steadying breath, then let it out slowly. A bead of sweat rolled its way down her forehead, and she brushed it away irritably with the grimy sleeve of her once white lab coat.

This was it. One more teaspoon of that odd glowing green goo she had found at the bottom of that contaminated lake. Two pieces of the Candy Kingdom's best—and rarest—black mentos, carefully cultivated over four long months of mining in the Candy Caves. And finally, one. Last. Drop. Of the Candy Kingdom's finest and most refined brown cola.

Steady now… steady…

Gently and oh, so carefully, she pinched the head of the dropper…

"BONNIE WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?"

Bubblegum let out a startled EEP. The dropper slipped out of her hand and the whole thing fell into the glass beaker, which was followed by a massive BOOM that shook her bones, sent a cloud of toxic smoke into her lab, and seemed to rattle the very structure of the rock candy that the old tower was built from.

Coughing, eyes watering, Bubblegum slammed her fist onto a large red button on the wall beside her marked 'emergency.' Water rained down from the sprinklers on the ceiling and the smoke began to clear, revealing a certain floating, surprised, and—much to Bubblegum's extreme agitation—laughing-her-fangs-off, vampire queen.

"Woah, PBubbs." She laughed, plugging her nose and waving the air in front of her. "I may not need to breathe but have some class!"

Bubblegum sighed, righting a chair that had been knocked over in the small but incredibly foul-smelling explosion. "What do you want, Marceline?"

"Oh, you know." Marceline stretched lazily from the tips of her fingers to her toes, still suspended in midair, stretching so far that she somehow ended upside down. She stayed that way but she relaxed, long black hair swaying slightly with the movement. "I just wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out."

"Hang out." Bubblegum intoned, her face a pink marble mask of incredulity.

"Yeah, you know, hang out? Chill and play videogames? Toss pebbles into the abyss, like we used to?" Marceline cartwheeled back to an upward position and floated toward Bubblegum. "Hang out."

"I know what hanging out is, Marceline." Bubblegum said coldly, crossing her arms over her chest. "And I shouldn't be surprised that you haven't even apologized for ruining four months of research and planning." With one arm she gestured toward the floor, littered with broken glass and green liquid that was now beginning to bubble. "Cleaning this up is going to be almost impossible."

The sprinklers sputtered out, leaving Bubblegum fuming and dripping wet.

Marceline just shrugged, shaking her hair out like a dog would shake water from its fur. "I'm sorry Bonnie. Pep Buts can clean it up though, and now you and I can hang out." Her grin was wide. The dim red glow of the emergency lights glinted off of one of her fangs.

Bubblegum closed her eyes and counted to ten backward, then she did it again. "Look." She said. "I have so much work to do." Her words were clipped, angry. "And now I have to clean up the mess that you made. Even if I wanted to 'hang out', I can't. Not tonight."

"Tomorrow then?"

Bubblegum scoffed, continuously amazed that someone could possibly be so clueless about how little they were wanted. She pointed at the open window, where moonlight was streaming into the darkened lab. "Get out."

"Yeesh." Marceline frowned, apparently just now grasping the situation. "I'll leave, Bonnie. Sorry." She drifted toward the night sky.

"And close that window!" Bubblegum demanded, not deigning to look in Marceline's direction.

The window was slammed shut, and Bubblegum shook her head at the wreckage in front of her.

The mixture was already starting to seep through the floorboards.